Absorption Ministry Braces for Influx of French Jews

“I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out.” (Ezekiel 20:34 )

Young French adults hold up their new Israeli Id’s at a ceremony held at the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem for new immigrants. (Photo: Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Immigration from France is on the rise: in the first half of 2015, approximately 5,100 French Jews immigrated to Israel – over 25 percent more than in the same period in 2014.

Officials in the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption estimate the number of French Jews moving to Israel to reach 9,000 by the end of the year – 1,800 more than the 2014 total.

The immigration surge was the subject of a report submitted Tuesday to Minister of Immigrant Absorption Ze’ev Elkin by the head of the French Jewish Organizations in Israel, who presented the Minister with two scrolls containing the names of the immigrants for each year.

Elkin had hinted, in statements published in the Israeli press, that the Ministry faced a formidable challenge as its absorption centers are currently functioning without a budget.

“The problem is that since the budget for 2015 has not yet been approved, we are currently operating on last year’s budget, which limits our resources and ability to plan ahead and adjust to the new situation,” the spokeswoman for Minister Elkin told Tazpit News Agency.

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“In order to fill the gap, the government has made a series of special decisions to allocate funds from other sources,” she explained, adding that problems notwithstanding, the Ministry was fully prepared to absorb the newcomers.

One of those newcomers is Shira Brami, who immigrated to Israel from Paris last year.

“The terror attacks were the thing that really drove home the importance of Israel,” Brami, a 24 year-old law student, told Tazpit News Agency. “This is the reason we have a state.”

Brami made the decision to make Aliya after years of visiting Israel.

“From a certain point on, I found it increasingly difficult to go back home,” Brami recalls. “Talking about Israel disturbed people; you could feel the hostility in the air. I asked myself, ‘Why not come to Israel?’

A turning point for many French Jews came with the Hyper Cacher terror attack in January, after which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a general call to European Jews, urging them to immigrate.